(Newser)
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The ozone layer above the Arctic withered by 40% this winter, according to the UN's weather agency, a stark increase from the previous seasonal record of 30%. The loss was driven largely by frigid conditions in the stratosphere—though surface temperatures were actually warmer than normal—and lingering chemicals banned in 1987's Montreal Protocol. "The 2011 ozone loss shows that we have to remain vigilant and keep a close eye on the situation in the Arctic in the coming years," the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization says.

Late last month, wind blew the hole over Greenland and Scandinavia, where the WMO asked that people heed national ozone-level alerts. The BBC notes that though the amount of chemical pollution driving ozone loss is falling, the Antarctic ozone hole is expected to persist until 2045 to 2060. Ozone outside the poles is expected to hit pre-1980 levels between 2030 and 2040, reports the AP.

Depleted parts of the Ozone Layer can be repaired artificially by injecting oxygen gas through aircraft to the ozone layer to join in combination and dissociation reactions in the stratosphere. A detailed report of this is available at: http://stephaz.webs.com/ozoneholerecovery.htm This research is extremely important for man and the environment since in-50 years natural repair may not do for today combinational effects of ozone depletion and climate change.

CawMentor

Apr 5, 2011 5:50 PM CDT

For those asking why is this hole forming? What makes this year different? or why do they keep mentioning the cold air, and what does it have to do with the ozone? The hole exists, because the ozone is being forced out of the area by the cold air. Ozone O3 is a 3 piece oxygen molecule created by a reaction of sunlight and oxygen in the atmosphere. It is always being created anywhere the sun hits the air, and destroyed by the UV light. In the antarctic the ice is so thick that a polar vortex always forms during their long night of winter ( a month or so with no sunlight at all.) during that time the cold air pushes all the warm air out and forms almost a wall of cold. Because the Ozone is formed by sunlight it is warm when created, so is also pushed out. It's dark during the arctic winter so no Ozone is created there during that time so a hole forms. Now normally because there is no land mass at the North pole, and very little inside the arctic circle, there is not normally enough ice mass to set up a polar vortex there, but this year it was unusually cold. A vortex formed and then so did an Ozone hole. In both the arctic and the antarctic the ozone hole collapses once the sun rises again and heats the air enough to break the vortex. There is a risk though for maybe a few weeks that this cold air mass before it breaks up does not have the ozone levels in it to guard against UV radiation in these very northern cities and towns and they could be at risk to skin cancer from the elevated UV. Not too likely that they will be out in shorts and a t-shirt anyway.

CawMentor

Apr 5, 2011 5:50 PM CDT

All these propellant CFC chemicals were banned because the patents expired. For years we used inert gas called Freon as a propellant in aerosol cans, it was safe, and it worked because it didn't react with anything. But suddenly after the patents ran out on Freon-12, Freon-11 and CFC 113 all made by Dupont, it was discovered they reacted with sunlight and became rogue CFC chemicals eating all the free oxygen in the stratosphere and it was destroying the Ozone layer! Really it's far more likely that suddenly these chemicals were being produced very cheaply overseas, and profits were falling. What's a big powerful company like Dupont to do when this happens? maybe leak that they are dangerous to Greenpeace and the enviro-terrorists and suggest that these are now a harmful chemical. A little pushing and greasing of some wheels I'm sure and they were banned as part of the Montreal Accord, but too bad for the public that it really had nothing to do with the ozone hole or saving the environment, just corporate profits The idiocy of the argument that a lone carbon atom in the stratosphere could block the production of Ozone, or even destroy ozone. Because Ozone is created by a reaction of sunlight and Oxygen there is nothing that will ever be able to stop it's creation, the odds are just too great that sunlight will find and bond oxygen to O3, and the number of rogue CFCs so infinitesimally small to try and block that process.